PEOPLE under the age of 40 will be offered an alternative to the AstraZeneca vaccine amid fears over low platelet blood clots.
The announcement from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) this afternoon is a change from the previous policy, which said that all under-30s would be offered an alternative.
The UK Government has said that the move to alternative vaccines should not affect the target of offering a first jag to every UK adult by the end of July.
Supplies of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are said to be solid enough that this target can still be achieved.
The JCVI's updated advice says: "In addition to those aged under 30 years, unvaccinated adults aged 30-39 years who do not have an underlying health condition that puts them at higher risk of sever Covid-19, should be preferentially offered an alternative to the AstraZeneca vaccine where possible and only where no substantial delay or barrier in access to vaccination would arise."
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Author and GP Dr Amir Khan told ITV's Good Morning Britain that the JCVI’s decision was an attempt to combat vaccine hesitancy among younger people concerned about the news of blood clot risks.
Khan said: "They [JCVI] have recognised there is some vaccine hesitancy in the younger age groups and they think that some of that may be worry around these extremely rare blood clots associated with low platelets.”
He said the offering of alternatives to AstraZeneca to under-40s would “help combat some of that hesitancy”.
JCVI member Professor Adam Finn told the BBC that the decision had been balanced in “favour of safety”.
He said that if was in his early thirties and offered the AstraZeneca vaccine “I’d take it, I don’t think I’d be concerned about that”.
Finn said the JCVI were “taking the opportunity to drive down the risk even further” due to the availability of alternative vaccines.
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Dr June Raine, chief executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), said: "Public safety is always at the forefront of our minds and we take every report seriously.
"Our position remains that the benefits of the Covid-19 vaccine AstraZeneca against Covid-19, with its associated risk of hospitalisation and death, continues to outweigh the risks for the vast majority of people.
"The balance of benefits and risks is very favourable for older people but is more finely balanced for younger people and we advise that this evolving evidence should be taken into account when considering the use of the vaccine, as JCVI has done."
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